


Destiny

by Tarlan



Category: Alien Series, Aliens (1986)
Genre: Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-03-16
Updated: 2006-03-16
Packaged: 2017-10-18 16:53:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/191091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Many years after the events at Hadley's Hope, Hicks hears new rumors of aliens.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Destiny

The man leaned forward, lowering his voice to a whisper. "I hear talk that there really are aliens out there. Big ones." He leaned in even closer. "Nasty ones that lay their larva inside you, and which then bursts out of your chest."

Hicks grimaced. He knew all too well about those aliens having dealt with them close up. He touched the side of his face, feeling the smooth skin that had replaced the acid scarring. He had never been a vain man but he had hated looking into the mirror and seeing his flesh so hideously disfigured. Fortunately, the wonders of modern technology had ensured that the damage was repaired with new skin cloned from his cells. Still, it had taken years before he felt as fit -- and looked as healthy -- as he had before that fateful trip to Acheron.

He had lost everyone he knew on that trip; the whole squad had been wiped out except for him, and then the worst had happened while he slept away the months. He wondered how the second alien had managed to evade the Sulaco's intrusion systems but it had found its way into the hypersleep chamber and had placed beside Ellen the single egg brought on-board by the Queen. Acid from the alien's blood had breached the canopy of her sleep chamber, giving the facehugger access to her comatose body.

In some ways it was fortunate that the alien's acid had damaged the computer controls on both his and Newt's chambers, and making them indicate a failure when, in actuality, both had been functioning within normal parameters. No one on Fiorina 161 had wanted to raise the clouded canopies to take a look at what they assumed would be rotting corpses if the computer had been correct. Instead, he and Newt had been left to sleep through all the horrors -- and Ellen's death -- only to be awoken when the Colonial Marines arrived in response to the fresh call for help.

He sighed as he recalled his final moments on Acheron, on board the drop ship that Bishop had navigated down from the Sulaco. He had held on for as long as possible before allowing Bishop to give him the sedative that had sent him spiraling into a dreamless sleep, wanting to know the outcome of Ellen's attempt to save Newt before he slept away the weeks on the return journey. Unfortunately, the pain of his injuries had been too much to bear so he had not witnessed the death of the Queen alien on-board the Sulaco, nor the final destruction of the colony on Acheron, and neither had he been part of the desperate fight to survive on Fiorina 161.

The leader of the people had left a statement saying how bravely Ripley fought to save them all -- and how she gave her life to ensure that the queen alien gestating inside her was given no chance to live and breed. That should have been the end of it -- the end of the reign of terror -- but every day brought fresh rumors of alien encounters even though Weyland-Yutani and the Colonial Marines denied anything had happened on Acheron, or any place else.

Hicks could not help but feel responsible in some small way as there had not been time to ensure all the colonists were accounted for before hell broke loose on Acheron. There was a strong possibility that some had fled the planet as soon as the colony came under attack, only to die just as horrifically as the larva finished gestating inside them. Then there was the matter of where the aliens might have originated from. Ellen's crew had first come across them inside a space craft that must have crash landed on Acheron millennia ago -- long before humanity had taken to the stars. But had the aliens caused the crash, or had they arrived in the long years following? It would be impossible to say now that the ancient ship and its terrible occupants had been vaporized, for no record could be found in the data downloaded from the colonist database to the Sulaco, or in the database held on the escape craft used by Ellen after she destroyed the Nostromo.

"Dwayne?"

He turned and smiled pensively at the beautiful woman, accepting the warmth of her kiss upon his lips, and the tantalizing flicker of her tongue before she released him to take a seat by his side. Her blue eyes narrowed questioningly.

The stranger had moved away to spread his rumors elsewhere, and Hicks reached out to stroke his wife's soft cheek. She had been waiting for him when he came out of his long restorative sleep, growing into this beautiful creature by the time he emerged from his medical chrysalis; no longer the child who had held his hand and stroked his scarred cheek as the drugs took hold of his body over a decade earlier. Despite attempts to send her away from his side, she had fought to remain with him while he slept, bonded by the horror they had witnessed and the love they had shared for Ripley.

"They're back," he said softly, and watched as her eyes closed in remembered horror and pain. "I'm sorry, Newt."

She shook her head and pressed a finger against his lips. "Not your fault… or mine or Ripley's. It was inevitable."

"So, where do we go?"

"I don't know. There's no safety in numbers with those creatures."

"Then let's stay here awhile."

They looked through the clear plexi-glass to the world beyond, where the atmosphere processor had already altered the air so it was breathable and the land so that it would be arable. It was a new world; similar to the world that Newt's parents had promised her and her brother when they uprooted their family and followed others to Acheron.

Hadley's Hope seemed a lifetime away to both of them now, but Hicks had a good feeling about this place; it was called Destiny.

THE END


End file.
